Junior Member

Tons of open public land you can hunt. Pay attention to private and Coast Guard lands though. Leisnoi has quite the racket on hunting their lands. So prepare to be harassed depending on where you go if you don’t buy their BS “permit”. You can hunt CG land also but i’d hit up the military police and they can give you a map of areas you can hunt. Pretty much pick any trail that takes you high and start hiking, you’ll find deer. Lots of trail users throughout the year. So if you kill a deer please don’t leave the carcass on or near the trail. Because a bear will end up on it in short order.The new Compass suites hotel is pretty nice with a kitchenette etc.

Bring flagging tape if you end up busting off through the brush. It is THICK!

As far as timing, rut doesn’t happen til after road system closes. But you’ll see some activity getting into October.

Senior Member

Yea I've done it, might do it again this year. As far as access Id say half of the rd access is controlled by BIA,leisnoi or Ouzinkie. The places that looked good on a map had local hunters, but I ended up just walking in further past them. Cant help on time of year, we slept in a tent the whole time and brought a cooler for the meat. Also FWIW the price difference between renting a car for a week and the cost of a fly out isn't that much especially if ou split the cost with a friend.

Member

That pretty much covers it. Fish and Game in Kodiak have maps of open lands. Contact Lesnio for their permit if you want to keep other options open. We went over Labor Day last year. Glassed up lots and lots of deer up high from the road.

We rented a vehicle from the "Cranky Crow B and B" last time we went. She was nice to deal with and may give you a deal on a room and vehicle. A U Haul is usually the best price for vehicle rentals. Best Western and Comfort Inn are both nice places. Shelikof smells like smoke. Comfort Inn let me store dead stuff in their freezer the time I stayed there so that was nice. Last time we went we just camped at a couple of the campgrounds right in/near town and that worked nicely. I would recommend that route over getting a room. Lots and lots of bears at the Buskin campground (just an FYI, they don't really mess with people but I've seen em run through the campground).

I don't know your situation or plan, but once you start renting vehicles and rooms for a week, you may as well book a fly out trip.

Senior Member

I would rather do a fly out hunt, but my wife is adamant about going and she'll be giving birth to our first kid in may. We had originally planned to fly out and leave the baby with my mother. But after discussing the plan with friends that have little ones they said that momma isn't gonna leave her 5 month old baby for a week. So now the plan is to take the baby and my mom with us to kodiak and just hunt the road system, that way momma will be with her baby atleast a little every day. We live in soldotna and will take the wheelers with us. I appreciate all the responses guys. Any further help with hunt or kid will be a great help!

Junior Member

I grew up hunting the road system. You will see a lot of locals on the roads but hiking in will get you away from them in a hurry.

Have you looked into getting off the road system? Last I checked you can only harvest one deer from the road system.

My favorite times were the second week of August where they are still red and you can glass them from miles away or right at the end of the season in October when the grass is all brown and they have their winter coat on.

If you are going to mount it, nothing is prettier than a late season blacktail with the dark forehead and two white patches on their neck.

Administrator

I would rather do a fly out hunt, but my wife is adamant about going and she'll be giving birth to our first kid in may. We had originally planned to fly out and leave the baby with my mother. But after discussing the plan with friends that have little ones they said that momma isn't gonna leave her 5 month old baby for a week. So now the plan is to take the baby and my mom with us to kodiak and just hunt the road system, that way momma will be with her baby atleast a little every day. We live in soldotna and will take the wheelers with us. I appreciate all the responses guys. Any further help with hunt or kid will be a great help!

I suggest taking the baby. We did it when Molly was 7 months old and it was way easier than the next year at 19 months because she wasn't walking or eating real food yet. I'd be glad to talk to you and Ashley about it more if it's helpful. We did a lot, but in retrospect I wish we'd done even more trips when she was tiny.